Edinburgh previews London, Cardiff, Sheffield

And here are the Socks doing their third Edinburgh Fringe preview show of the week, in the outdoors for a change, at the New Barrack Tavern in Sheffield this afternoon. That's right, 7 hours in the car, 1 hour on the stage, that's how we roll.

That was Sunday afternoon, while on Saturday night we had the air conditioned splendour of Chapter Arts in Cardiff, on a double bill with the fantastic Joe Lycett. Before all of which we had our third night at Leicester Square Theatre - our least heavily-plugged of the three shows and, with mind numbing inevitability, the one with the biggest audience.

The show is developing, and going through lots of changes. In Sheffield, for the first time, we dropped the 4 Horsemen song, a cling-on from last year's Boo Lingerie, and hard as it is to lose it, the new show's now standing on its own feet, with entirely new songs and sketches (apart from the Bottle routine and a closing sketch from 2009 which we'll probably keep because they're short and pretty bloody good - plus a musical gag which debuted on this night in 2009, then known as the Andy Warhol routine).

New routines and gags keep coming thick and fast, and being dropped as quickly. They got the new Countdown routine in London (died) and Sheffield (worked) but not in Cardiff (chickened out), and the new Apocalyptic running gag got its first outing in Sheffield, along with the new time travel ending to the Ding Dong routine, which didn't work today but I'm determined will do. Other people's preview thoughts are always refreshing, here are mine from 2009

Oh I'm shuffling the order every time, I've discarded more material for this show than for any previous show, and I'm at that stage that we've been at pretty well every past year at this time where I think it'll never be as good as I want it. And every show we come away with a mixture of inspiration and desperation. What a daft way to make a living, eh? Next stop The Comedy Box in Bristol, our first Edinburgh preview there since a few years ago when, after two consecutive years of killer previews, we did one with way too much new material and which ranks, to this day, as our worst preview show ever. Steve (Lount) hasn't had us back since (though he came to see the resultant show in Bath and realised what he'd missed) but now he's taken the chance on us not cocking up again. So, no pressure.

 

SOCKS ON TOUR - Your next chance to see the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

July 17 - Bristol Comedy Box at the Hen & Chickens
July 18 - Larmer Tree Festival, Salisbury
July 20 - Bedford Fringe
July 21 - Derby Funhouse 3.25pm
+ Mimetic Festival, Enfield 8.30pm
July 22 - Clowns Pocket, Neath
July 26 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
July 31 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, 10.15pm, Edinburgh Fringe

Space Oddity - Scottish Falsetto Socks

Brand new from the Socks, their version of a Bowie classic...



This is from the audience-in montage for Socks In Space, not part of the show itself, which is shaping up nicely with half a dozen previews to go before Edinburgh. A good preview at the Leicester Square Theatre this week, the third of three with the biggest audience of the lot, threw up some nice ideas that will get tested this weekend in Cardiff and Sheffield. See you all there.

 

SOCKS ON TOUR - Your next chance to see the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

July 13 - Chapter Arts, Cardiff Comedy Festival
July 14 - Sheffield, New Barrack Tavern 2pm
July 17 - Bristol Comedy Box at the Hen & Chickens
July 18 - Larmer Tree Festival, Salisbury
July 20 - Bedford Fringe
July 21 - Derby Funhouse 3.25pm
+ Mimetic Festival, Enfield 8.30pm
July 22 - Clowns Pocket, Neath
July 26 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
July 31 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, 10.15pm, Edinburgh Fringe

The Minions Spy - new comics by kids

Some more brand new comic creations by the pupils in my Comic Art Masterclasses.



These comics, the covers thereof, were dreamed up by the pupils of Ramsbury in Wiltshire, Newbury (courtesy of Berol pens), Walsall, Clevedon and Bushey in Herts. Every pupil goes home with a comic containing a strip by every one of them, and an individual caricature by me.

Most delightful moment of the week: The process of choosing the title of each group's comic involves each of them writing a title on a piece of paper, then we vote one versus the other till we've chosen the favourite. As we were coming close to choosing The Minions Spy, the wee year 3 girl who'd thought it up said to the teacher "my heart's beating so fast!". Sweet.

Continuing my informal survey of what kids find popular, when I ask which Doctor Who they want me to draw I am still getting an 80% David Tennant request rate over Matt Smith (sorry Matt, I don't know why this phenomenon has happened this year), and when I ask them to suggest a celebrity for the "treads on a worm" demo strip, these nine groups ended up choosing Simon Cowell (twice, though he is suggested in 80% of classes), Bradley Wiggins, Johnny Depp, Daniel Radcliffe, Psy, Keith Lemon, Harry Styles and Boris Johnson.

If you want to experience my Comic Art Masterclass, which is suitable for anyone aged 7 or over (there's no maximum age limit), I'll be doing classes at London's South Bank Centre this summer as part of Beanotown , a class in Bedford on July 20, and in August I'll be appearing in various libraries in and around Edinburgh, details here. And you can see me in the Lake District in October, stay tuned for that update. In the meantime you can always book me to come to your local school. Email and we'll take it from there. Details of my class, and more examples and testimonials, are on the website comicfestival.co.uk.

Hev & Kev do the Arnolfini

Here's the two of us re-enacting The Marriage of The Arnolfini, courtesy of a pair of fab event photographers called Photobooth Out Of Order, at the Sky Arts Portrait Artist Of The Year event yesterday in Cardiff. I know, gorgeous, ain't we?

Me & Frank, drawing in the sun

Today I was mostly doing a interview with Frank Skinner, which was the greatest fun and, if I'm really lucky, will avoid the cutting room floor and crop up in Sky Arts Portrait Artist Of The Year series later this year. When I wasn't doing that bit of the day, which to be frank, as t'were, took about 10 minutes, I was doing caricatures and teaching comics to the good people of Cardiff, and getting some sun.

Yes, I've not been writing many blogs lately what with my ludicrously over busy schedule, but two days of summer in a year like this has been weather wise merits a mention, and since yesterday I also got more sun than I can remember for ages doing the MC-ing at Shona & Kirsty's school fete (I arrived in a jacket, making me officially the most over-dressed for the weather since Hev & I arrived in Adelaide last year) it counts as blog-worthy.

So after a week that saw me driving from Bristol to Weston, Walsall, London, Manchester, Wiltshire, London, Cardiff and home to Bristol, surely next week will be easi... sorry, what's that you say? Newbury, Watford, London, Clevedon, Walsall, Gloucester, Cardiff & Sheffield? Sigh...

Bomber Baby - new comics by kids

The kids in my Comic Art Masterclasses have been busy again, producing this latest batch of beauties...



These are the covers of the comics, taken home by every member of every class, containing a strip by every one of them and their individual caricatures, from schools in Weston Super Mare, Walsall, Manchester, and Stourport. The Stourport classes were sponsored by those lovely people at Berol, whose pens I use for every one of these creations.

When I ask the kids to suggest a celebrity for me to draw in the big demonstration strip, someone always suggests Simon Cowell, and in recent weeks the Queen and Bob Marley have cropped up a lot. These classes finally plumped for The Queen (twice), Bruno Mars, Bear Grylls, Michael Jackson, Russell Brand and Winston Churchill. And when I ask them which Doctor Who they want me to draw, it's been 60% David Tennant to 40% Matt Smith.

If you want to experience my Comic Art Masterclass, which is suitable for anyone aged 7 or over (there's no maximum age limit), I'll be doing classes at London's South Bank Centre this summer as part of Beanotown , a class in Bedford on July 20, and in August I'll be appearing in various libraries in and around Edinburgh, details here. And you can see me in the Lake District in October, stay tuned for that update. In the meantime you can always book me to come to your local school. Email and we'll take it from there. Details of my class, and more examples and testimonials, are on the website comicfestival.co.uk.

July in the Socks calendar - Alien

This is how we celebrate July on the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's 2013 calendar, with the Socks take on the Alien poster (click to enlarge)...

If you want to enjoy this in full printed glory you can still buy the calendar with its 12 unique brand new specially drawn cartoons by Kev F formerly of The Beano. It's good for another 7 months and is a collector's item joy to treasure. Click on the image to see more of the calendar and the link to the shop, or if you can't wait, buy it here.

SOCKS ON TOUR - Your next chance to see the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

June 28 - Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol
July 2, July 9 - Leicester Square Theatre, London
July 5 - The Lord Nelson, Norton Sub Hamden, Somerset
July 13 - Chapter Arts, Cardiff Comedy Festival
July 14 - Sheffield, New Barrack Tavern 2pm
July 17 - Bristol Comedy Box at the Hen & Chickens
July 18 - Larmer Tree Festival, Salisbury
July 20 - Bedford Fringe
July 21 - Derby Funhouse 3.25pm
+ Mimetic Festival, Enfield 8.30pm
July 22 - Clowns Pocket, Neath
July 26 - Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester
July 31 - Aug 25 - Gilded Balloon, 10.15pm, Edinburgh Fringe
Further dates to be added, (plus regular appearances at your local comedy club, check listings for details and, if you can't find us, ask your local comedy club to book us, it can't hurt). Watch Facebook, here or ents24 for updates.